Monday, October 31, 2011

I made this one up myself on a whim. I’ve usually included bananas in my dark green smoothies, because of it’s powerful flavor, but I came up with one today that is every bit as good. This will be my new starting point for a little while as I explore variations!

In a medium sized bowl, mash the avocado. Add remaining ingredients and stir until well mixed. Spread 2-3 tablespoons of this mixture onto lettuce leaves and wrap. Enjoy!

As you can see these are simple and great for children to experiment with. We have these quite often and never quite the same way. Have fun!! Try new things!! You'll be amazed at just how talented you can be when you learn to PLAY in the kitchen.

Directions:

To make vegetable medley, just combine all ingredients in large bowl. To make the dressing, place all ingredients in blender or food processor, and blend until creamy. Add to vegetable medley, and toss well. For the cauliflower “rice,” place all ingredients in food processor, and pulse-chop to rice-like consistency. Serve topped with the vegetable medley.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

This raw version by Alissa Cohen should stick to your ribs. "This is one of my favorite raw recipes," explains Cohen. "I often make these at seminars and events and people go wild over them! There is always one person who continues to ask me through the whole event, 'What kind of pasta is this made from" even after I tell them numerous times that it's turnip not pasta. It's hard to believe these are raw!'"

RAW RAVIOLI

Wrappers (these replace the pasta dough):

4 turnips

Peel the turnips. Slice the turnips into very thin slices, by cutting them in half and then using a spiral slicer, mandolin or other vegetable slicer to make thin round disks.

Cheese filling:

1 cup pine nuts

1 cup macadamia nuts

1 cup walnuts

6 t braggs

8 t lemon juice

2 cloves garlic

1 cup parsley

Blend the pine nuts, macadamia nuts and walnuts in a food processor until ground. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend well, until creamy.

Soak the sun dried tomatoes until soft. In the food processor, blend the tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, basil, and garlic - until well blended . Add the dates and olive oil and blend until smooth. This sauce should be thick.

Directions for Assembling the Ravioli:

Remove a single turnip slice from the batch.

Place a teaspoon full of cheese filling in the turnip slice and fold the turnip over until all the sides meet.

Squeeze the edges together. Some of the filling will ooze out, but this is what will hold the edges together. Just put the excess back into the bowl to reuse. If you don't have enough filling in them they will not stick together.

Place them in a single layer on a large plate and drizzle the tomato sauce on top, allow to sit for a few hours. The turnip will become soft from the tomato sauce.

Crackers1) Place walnuts in the food processor and pulse until they are ground fine. 2) Add ground flax* and pulse until combined. 3) Add sun-dried tomatoes and olives. Pulse until combined. Do not over mix. 4) Stir in the oregano, thyme salt and peper. 5) Spread onto non-stick dehydrator sheet. Press to 1/4 – 1/8 th inch thick. Score. Dehydrate at 140 for an hour, then 115 until very dry. Mine took about 8 more hours. You will want to flip the crackers half way through dehydration.

Additional Tips

I always use golden flax for it’s mild taste. I grind the flax when I am making the recipe to protect the delicate oils. Measurement is after grinding.

Today’s pizza recipe takes advantage of that wonderful seed in it’s crust. I have had many requests for pizza so I finally dug in and made one for you. I must admit, this recipe is a complete winner. The recipe looks long but it you make the crust and mushrooms ahead and it is easy to throw together.

1. Sprout buckwheat: Soak 1 cup buckwheat in water overnight. Drain (the water will be slimy so drain and rinse a couple of times). Rinse 3 times a day until little tails sprout. Use when tails are the same length as the seed. This will take 1-2 days. 2. Place buckwheat and olive oil in the food process and pulse until a mash is achieved. 3. Add walnuts and pulse until well blended. 4. Add carrots and Italian spices, blend well. 5. Form into 6, 4-inch squares on a non-stick dehydrator sheet. Dehydrate at 140 for 45 minutes. Turn down heat to 115 and dehydrate until the tops are dry. Remove from non-stick sheet to screen and continue to dehydrate until mostly dry. You want these a little soft, not brittle.

Marinated Mushrooms and Onions

1. Toss together mushrooms and onions. Place in glass container. 2. Whisk together, olive oil, Nama Shoyu and maple syrup. 3. Pour over mushroom, onion mix. Stir to coat. Place in refrigerator for at least 4 hours to marinate. 4. Remove mixture, drain. Place on non-stick dehydrator sheets and dehydrate at 115 for 4-5 hours.

Grind sunflower seeds to a flour. In a food processor combine all ingredients except for cayenne . Add water as needed to reach a thick batter like consistency.

This amount of sauce is enough for at least two bunches of kale. I can’t tell you the exact amount, because I didn’t weigh it! After rinsing the kale and removing the spine (too tough to eat dehydrated), it loosely filled a very large mixing bowl. Like I said, you can’t mess this up.

Massage the sauce into the kale, spread onto dehydrator trays, sprinkle on desired amount of cayenne, and dehydrate on 105〫F until crunchy. In my home, these barely make it out of the dehydrator and are often nibbled on before they’re done

Pour into soup bowls and garnish each serving with some of the tomatoes and a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds. Serve immediately.

Author Variations: You can use a variety of vegetables in creamy green soups, such as bell pepper, celery, cucumber, fresh herbs, romaine lettuce, spinach, tomato, or zucchini. If you like, you can even add fresh fruits (in addition to or in place of the apple).

VARIATIONS: I soak the seeds for at least 4 hours, use 1 head of kale, and use 1 tablespoon of miso instead of tamari - the tamari was too strong and salty for me. I typically make the soup for a "hearty" meal and use 1/4 cup sunflower seeds and only 1 tablespoon of the same for a garnish. Then I also garnish it with both chopped apple AND chopped tomato. It is a satisfying meal. I think the pinch of cayenne is really great in there as well, I have forgotten to add it and noticed it was missing.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Decent raw bread recipes are hard to come by. Breads heavy in flax have a very strong flavour and can be a touch bitter, other recipes require you to shove stuff through a juicer as well as dehydrating. I have been trying out more raw food cuisine recently, on a health kick, and have come up with this recipe. This bread has a pretty mild flavour compared to straight flax seed/meal breads, and if – like me – you enjoy the taste of buckwheat, you will probably love this bread.

It’s high in omega oils, fibre, B-vitamins, and several minerals, including manganese. Buckwheat is a seed rather than a grain, and contains no gluten – it’s closely related to rhubarb. Freshly ground meal from sprouted buckwheat groats is best, otherwise buy your flax and buckwheat meal from a health store with a high turnover so it’s fresh, and keep it in the fridge or freezer. It’s also a good idea to keep your seeds in the fridge so the oils don’t break down or go rancid.

MethodMix buckwheat and flax meal in a bowl. Add salt, nutritional yeast (optional), and water, mix until well combined. Stir through sunflower, flax, pumpkin, sesame, and poppy seeds. Spread the batter evenly over 2 dehydrator trays. Dehydrate at 40ºC (104ºF) for 4 hours, flip the bread over, then dehydrate for another 1-4 hours, depending on how dry you want your bread. Cut each tray of bread into 8-9 slices (8 if round tray, 9 if rectangular). Store in refrigerator. Makes 16-18 slices.

Serving Suggestions, etc+ A great “bread” for morning “untoast.” + An awesome raw pizza base. + A bun for burgers or sandwiches. + You can use different seeds in the bread to suit your own tastes. + Add finely chopped onion, crushed garlic, pepper, herbs, and/or spices for fancy flavour variations! + You might need to add a little more or less water to the thick bread batter depending on the water content of your flax and buckwheat meal. + Instead of water – and for extra tastiness and vitamins – you could use fresh celery juice or a mix of celery and carrot juice. + The longer you dehydrate the bread, the dryer it will be, and the longer it will keep – up to two months in the refrigerator. (Well-dried bread is great to take camping or on road trips!) + Less dehydration time makes a soft pliable bread with a great texture. It will keep for about a week in the fridge. + I use nutritional yeast that contains vitamin B-12. (Note: nutritional yeast is sometimes called savoury yeast. It’s not the same as brewer’s yeast or other yeasts!) While nutritional yeast is not strictly raw, it’s handy if you like to add extra vitamins to your food. + Read more about raw food preparation on the FAQ page.

1. In a bowl, pour 2 cups of raw buckwheat groats (not Kasha, but RAW buckwheat groats) and 4 cups of water. Soak for at least 1 hour or overnight. After soaking, rinse well in a strainer several times.

2. Place buckwheat groats in food processor or blender, along with the almond milk, chia seeds, and vanilla. Process until combined and slightly smooth. Now add in the sweetener and cinnamon to taste (I found 1/4 cup of sweetener was enough, but others might like a bit more or less than that).

3. Scoop into bowls or parfait glasses and add your desired toppings & mix-ins. Serve immediately cold. Place leftovers into fridge and enjoy for the next few days. Makes 4 cups at about 385 calories per cup (using 1/4 c maple syrup, but without toppings).